Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Clinical Significance of Minimal Residual Disease in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

1998; Massachusetts Medical Society; Volume: 339; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1056/nejm199808273390904

1533-4406

Hélène Cavé, Jutte van der Werff ten Bosch, Stefan Suciu, C Guidal, C Waterkeyn, J. Otten, Marleen Bâkkus, Kris Thielemans, Bernard Grandchamp, E Vilmer, Brigitte Nelken, Martine Fournier, Patrick Boutard, Emmanuel Lebrun, Françoise Méchinaud, Richard Garand, Alain Robert, Nicole Dastugue, Emmanuel Plouvier, E Racadot, A Ferster, Jan Gyselinck, Odile Fenneteau, Michel Duval, G. Solbu, Anne‐Marie Manel,

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Research

The implications of the detection of residual disease after treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are unclear. We conducted a prospective study at 11 centers to determine the predictive value of the presence or absence of detectable residual disease at several points in time during the first six months after complete remission of childhood ALL had been induced. Junctional sequences of T-cell–receptor or immunoglobulin gene rearrangements were used as clonal markers of leukemic cells. Residual disease was quantitated with a competitive polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) assay. Of 246 patients enrolled at diagnosis and treated with a uniform chemotherapy protocol, 178 were monitored for residual disease with one clone-specific probe (in 74 percent) or more than one probe (in 26 percent). The median follow-up period was 38 months.